US firm may put up 10 ‘gasification’ plants in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines—US-based Quantum International is considering putting up in the Philippines 10 “plasma gasification plants” that will help address the growing volume of municipal and industrial solid wastes and the expected power supply shortage in the country.

In a briefing Monday, Quantum International president and chief executive Al Johnson said the capacity of each plant to process and treat wastes might differ depending on the volume and quality of garbage that would be brought to the site.

Johnson said his company could put up plasma plants that could treat 1,000 to 5,000 tons of garbage. Investments, he said, will vary from a minimum of $250 million to as much as $850 million for a “regional” plasma gasification plant that can treat up to 5,000 tons of garbage.

Johnson said Quantum was expecting to close the deals for five of its 10 proposed plants within the year, mostly with local government officials of target provinces.

Of the five facilities, which are expected to be able to process a combined 13,000 tons of garbage, three will be in Mindanao, one in Bataan and another in the Visayas.

Johnson is optimistic that the company would be able to close all the necessary deals for its target portfolio of 10 plasma gasification plants in two years. He said he hoped that the local governments would be able to see the value of the technology, that it would address not only garbage disposal problems, but also power supply concerns.

He said that processing 1,000 tons of wastes could generate 1,000 megawatts and thus, his planned portfolio for the first five facilities would be able to generate as much as 13,000 MW. However, he added, the local governments might be able to choose what products they wanted to produce from the plasma gasification plant. The plant could be used to produce not only electricity but also gasoline, kerosene and biofuels.

Although Quantum is open to partnership arrangements with local companies, Johnson said the company could proceed with the project alone as it had the technical and financial capacity to do so.

“The only thing that we require is garbage. We need long-term contract, a minimum of 1,000 tons per day. We also need to be able to sell our electricity at market rates. We believe that the more electricity we generate from the plasma facilities, prices will come down eventually,” he said.